“The Book” is an odd short story perhaps pertaining to that horrific tome, The Necronomicon. There is no title for the narrator to relate to the reader, “the early pages were missing” (34). The pages of the book were not typed, but hand written suggesting a rare value.
The narrator rushes home to uncover its secrets. The book is filled with strange drawings, hand gestures, and incantations. He attempts them and is transported out of his body and into a realm full of knowledge most horrifying and evil.
On his return trip to our purely mundane plain of existence, for it must surly be that in comparison to those alien landscapes, he gains a sinister shadow. A shadow that spooks lesser creatures and angers dogs as he pass them on the street.
The one thing that our narrator knows for sure is that he must be careful during his out of body quests and in his use of those grotesque incantations. If his is not careful, he may end up separated from his body forever. His consciousness free, without anchor, potential food for those alien denizens of the secret depths.
Read it here: The Book
Lovecraft, H. P., “The Book.” The Transition of H. P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness. New York: Del Rey, 1996, 34 – 36.
0 comments:
Post a Comment